


Voltron Whump Week 2017

by hufflepirate



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddles, Diplomacy, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Mentions of Other Voltron Paladins, Oaths & Vows, Past Torture, Poison, Poisoning, Rescue, Restraints, Season 3 compliant, Sharing a Bed, Snow, The Lord of the Rings References, Torture, Vomiting, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-17 11:12:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11850387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepirate/pseuds/hufflepirate
Summary: I didn't do the whole week, but I did end up with some monster fics when I meant to write microfics.  (Well, not that monster.  Just... 4k is not micro.)Day 2 - Hypothermia - Hunk fights his way through the snow to get everyone back to their lions after a diplomatic meeting.  He isn't fast enough to keep Lance from getting hypothermia, but Blue is waiting for them and everyone's ready to support each other.  Also features LOTR jokes.Day 4 - Torture - Coran hangs from his wrists and thinks back on his training in resisting torture. He's happy to think Allura's far away, safe with her lion, but she has some thoughts of her own about letting him be in pain. She isn't her father, but he'd give just as much for her.Day 6 - Poison - Allura and Hunk are poisoned at a diplomatic dinner.  Hunk knows what to do in the immediate moment, and the rest of the team is there to fix it afterward.  Allura and Hunk grow closer through the experience.





	1. Hypothermia

**Author's Note:**

> These are the first fics I wrote to play with the new Season 3 dynamics, so there are some minor spoilers ahead.

Hunk forced his way through the deep snow, carving a path behind him for the rest of the team.  Beside him, Allura was working just as hard to clear a space, but she wasn’t just pushing through the snow, she was also pushing hard to keep her shapeshifting active.  She’d made herself wider this time, instead of taller, so that she could leave a bigger path through the snowdrifts, but even with her extra width, she was clearly getting tired, too.

Everything hurt.  His muscles were sore, his whole body was aching from the cold, and even inside his helmet, the air was so cold it stung when he breathed.  Their armor had helped for a while, but the snow was too thick and the wind too cold, and one by one their armor’s heating systems had given out.

He could hear Pidge’s teeth chattering behind them, but she was far from his only worry.  Lance and Keith were too skinny, too, and they had a long way to go before they could get back to the lions.

The wind picked up again and he gritted his teeth, turning his head to look behind him.  Pidge and Keith looked miserable, but were keeping up well.  Lance was lagging behind.

“Stay close to me!” Hunk shouted at him, “I can try to block the wind.”

Lance nodded, hurrying to catch up, but then seemed to lose his balance, reeling into the side of the trench he was walking through.  Keith reached out and caught him.   “He’s breathing kind of funny!” he shouted over the wind, “I think he’s starting to get hypothermia!”

Hunk and Allura looked at each other and then took a step back, pulling into a huddle around Keith and Lance.  Pidge was already by Lance’s side, supporting him.

“What do you want to do, Keith?” Hunk asked, letting their new leader take charge.

“We could try going back,” Allura said, charging in instead, “But I’m not sure we’d make it any faster, and this lull in the storm could be over at any moment, with those clouds.  We might have to fight just as hard to get through the snow in the other direction.  At least if we keep going, we know we’ll be welcome at the end.  The lions will be ready for us, and we don’t want to abuse the hospitality of our new allies too quickly.”

Keith looked tired, but Hunk couldn’t tell if it was normal tired or hypothermic tired.  He shifted to block the wind anyway, hating the way it tore through the damp parts of his underarmor, hating the way it almost pushed him over into his friends, and hating the way both made him tense up, tiring his muscles out even further.

“We keep going,” Keith said, “We don’t really have a choice.  We’re closer to the lions anyway.”

Hunk nodded, bracing himself for another fight against the weather.  “Ok.  Just keep close to me and Allura.  It’s better if we can keep you out of the wind.”

When they started again, Hunk could practically  _feel_ the others behind him, they were so close.  Pidge’s teeth were still chattering, and while Lance’s footsteps were steady with Keith’s arm supporting him, they also sounded a little clumsy, scraping periodically into the snow.  He kept whispering soft sorries any time he stepped on Keith’s foot, and Keith kept reassuring him that it was alright, but it wasn’t.  They had to get him out of the cold.

Suddenly, Pidge giggled behind him.

“What?” Keith snapped.

“Sorry, I just f-figured out what we’re like.  We’re like the F-Fellowship trying t-to get over C-C-Charadhras.  The three of us are the h-hobbits.”

Hunk snorted.  “So I guess I’m Boromir?  I’d rather not get shot, if it’s all the same.”

“Allura c-can be Boromir and you c-can be Aragorn.”

“Nah, she’s the one who’s real royalty.”

“Who are these hobbits you speak of?” Allura asked.

Pidge giggled again.  “We’ll t-tell you when we g-get back to the l-lions.”

Hunk just hoped that was true.  He and Allura were shivering now, too, in spite of the hard work of pushing through the snow, and Pidge was clearly getting worse.  Keith seemed to be in better shape than Pidge or Lance, but the more weight Lance leaned on him, the more he let out little grunts of effort as he kept them moving.

It felt like an eternity before they made it back to the lions.  The storm started again when they were in view of the lions, blotting them out and making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of them.  The other three paladins huddled close behind him and Allura, so they would get lost.  Keith was busy holding Lance up, but Pidge grabbed ahold of Lance's other arm with her left hand and slid the right into Allura's hip pocket, keeping them connected just in case.

The lions were a few dozen yards away and _just_ visible through the snow when Allura’s shapeshifting gave out, and Hunk had to shove through by himself, bashing his body up against the mounting wall of snow to clear it for the rest of the team even though every push forward hurt more than before.

Blue’s mouth opened in front of them before any of them could muster the extra breath to call out to their lions.  “She wants all of us to get in,” Allura said behind him, “Hurry!  Lance needs the heaters!”

Hunk nodded, Keith grunted, and if Pidge said yes, Hunk didn’t catch it.  But that didn’t matter.  They were  _so close_.

As he climbed the ramp into the lion, Hunk realized his legs were shaking from all the exertion.  Keith was carrying Lance completely, and Pidge was clearly struggling to stay on her feet, but Allura reached over to help, leaning into Hunk and letting him lean back.  They made it into Blue's cockpit together, heaving a sigh of relief as they got out of the wind.

“Put Lance in the seat,” Allura said, “She says she can focus the heat on his core better that way.”

Keith shook his head, “We’ve gotta get his armor off, first.  At least the wet parts.  Is there a blanket anywhere?”

“She says there’s one in a drawer in the back, I’ll go get it.”

Hunk stepped up to help Keith with Lance.  “Come on, buddy,” he said, “Stay with us.”  Lance’s eyes were flickering open and shut, and his face was cold once they got his helmet off and Hunk could feel his forehead.

“Why are you taking my clothes off?” Lance asked, “Can Pidge see?  Don’t let Pidge see!  Why can’t I wear my armor?”

“It’s too wet,” Keith explained, “We have to get you warmed up, and it’ll keep you cold.

“Oh,” Lance said, flopping over on Keith as soon as the red paladin had gotten his armor off him.  “ _You’re_ warm.”

“Not as warm as your chair’s gonna be,” Keith said back, clearly uncomfortable.  Hunk tried not to think about how much the outside of their paladin armor was  _not_ warm.

Hunk reached over to help steady Lance, and he flopped over toward him, instead.  “You’re warm, too.”

“You’re gonna be _so_ warm when Blue’s done with you,” he said reassuringly, “She still loves you, you know.”

"'Course she loves me," he said happily, pushing away from Hunk to flop over part of the pilot's chair.  "We love each other."

Allura appeared with the blanket just as they were ready to strip Lance out of the underlayer of his armor.  He blushed and fought their hands off until she and Pidge both agreed to turn their backs, but then he let Hunk and Keith help him out of his clothes and wrap him in the blanket.

As soon as Lance was settled into the seat that used to be his, the lion purred so fiercely that the rest of them felt it too, not just her own paladins.  It almost made up for the fact that once he was curled up in the seat, he stopped bothering to keep his eyes open.

Sinking onto the floor of the Blue Lion felt as good as anything Hunk could remember.  It was a relief to be off his feet and an even bigger relief not to be outside, trying to shield his friends from the weather.  The storm was too heavy to fly through, so he didn't have to worry about trying to get the others to their lions.  All he had to worry about was Lance.

Keith came over and sat next to Hunk, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “You did a good job out there.  We’d never have made it without you.”

Hunk ducked his head down, looking away.  “You guys needed it.”

“Yeah, but you still  _did_ it.  You should be proud of that.”

Maybe Keith was right, but even if he was, Hunk didn’t know how to say so.  “Thanks, Keith,” he answered, instead.

Hunk could tell Keith was still on edge from Lance’s collapse.  He looked around the cockpit, taking all of them in, then said “Pidge, come over here.  You’re shivering too hard, too.  You need extra body heat.”

Hunk wasn’t sure which was more surprising, the fact that Keith had said it, or the fact that Pidge actually followed directions, coming to sit between him and Keith and snuggle with them both.  Keith stripped out of the top parts of his armor, leaving the black bodysuit, and the rest of them followed his lead, before snuggling closer together again.  They were wet and freezing, and Pidge's shivering was concerning, but at least without the shells in the way, they could start to share body heat.

Allura sat across from them, leaning up against the side of the pilot’s chair where she could keep an eye on Lance.  For a while, they just sat, periodically asking Lance to open his eyes, just to prove he still could.

Finally, Lance was stable enough to tell them off without sounding confused, and they could let him sleep.  He was out of immediate danger, and if they could wait out the storm, they could get him real medical help at the Castle.

“So,” Allura said, after they’d been sitting in silence for a while, “While we’re stuck here, tell me about those hobbits you mentioned.”

Hunk opened his mouth to explain, but before he could get a word out, the most surprising thing of all happened.

“It all started,” Keith said, “When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday …”


	2. Torture

Coran stood on his tiptoes, feeling sweat run down his sides.  It was hot in here,  _much_ too hot, but the fact that they’d left him in his heavy, woolen uniform at least meant that they probably weren’t planning to beat him.  He hoped.

His legs and feet hurt worse by the second.  After a moment, he took a deep breath and twisted his hands upward, grabbing ahold of the chains that linked the cuffs on his wrists to the ceiling.  He pulled himself up, taking his weight off his legs again.  His arms shook with exertion, and he knew he couldn’t hold out forever, even moving his weight around like this.  It was hard to breathe, and everything hurt, and the pain made it hard to think.

He had to keep holding himself up, one way or the other.  He had to keep fighting to keep his muscles working, in spite of the way they were screaming at him.  If he didn’t, he’d wind up with dislocated shoulders, and that would be worse.  Might be worse.  Certainly wouldn’t be better.

 _It’s alright_ , he told himself,  _you’ve trained for this_.  

He tried not to think about the fact that his ‘training’ had been over 10,000 deca-phoebs ago, or the fact that they’d only pushed him just about this far before they cut him loose.  And it hadn’t been so hot there.  And the lights hadn’t been so glaringly, unchangingly bright.  And he hadn’t had so much sweat in his eyes.  And he hadn’t been worried his hands would slip and leave his wrists to take his full weight.

He still remembered Alfor, only a prince at the time, coming to support him when he was let back down.  Alfor had been grinning, never quite able, at that age, to manage the decorum he needed to.  He’d taken most of Coran’s weight, letting him lean heavily into his shoulder, and he’d kept saying how proud he was.  Coran could almost hear him, even now.   _That’s it!  You did it!_    _You held out!_

It had been the last step, the  _last thing_  he had to do before he could take his place as Alfor’s Steward, and they’d both known Alfor was supposed to be working on his wedding preparations, and Coran hadn’t faulted him for running off before the medics had gotten him healed all the way.  Even if he’d wanted to be angry, the twinkle in Alfor's eye would have stopped him.   _Don’t worry, Coran_ , he’d said,  _You’d never have betrayed me anyway, and now we know you can hold out more than long enough for me to find you!_

10,000 deca-phoebs was a long time, and Alfor wasn’t coming.  Coran had sworn to serve him faithfully, had followed him out of his father’s castle and into his first castle of his own, had stood by him when he took the throne a few years later, had pledged himself again to his daughter on the day of Allura's birth, had kept his place behind Alfor’s chair through every court function, through the earliest days of the rift and the lions and the paladins, through  _everything_ , and he’d never been tortured again, and now here he was and  _Alfor wasn’t coming_.

He could feel his arms threatening to give out, and eased back down to put his weight back on his swollen toes.  It hurt.  Every inch of him hurt, and he was afraid he would slip in the puddle of sweat pooling underneath him, and he forced himself to keep breathing.

He would be alright.   _He had trained for this_.  He blinked to try to get the sweat out of his eyes, but it just stung worse.  At least he was alone.  At least Allura was gone.  At least he’d been the only one in the Castle when they came for him.  At least he still had that.

 _You’d never have betrayed me anyway_.  No.   _Now we know you can hold out_.  Maybe.  But it was hard to be sure.  He could feel his body teetering on the edge of what it could take.  He had no idea how long it had been.  The lights were all electric, and all bright.  They didn’t seem to be changing based on what time of the quintant it was, and showed no sign of dimming soon.  It had been many vargas, now, and the lights hadn’t changed at all.  He closed his eyes, but that didn’t  _really_ make it dark, and even if it had, he couldn’t sleep like this.  Not without letting go, and then the pressure of hanging here would start to break him, and he couldn’t.  He couldn’t. 

Someone would be coming.  Allura and the rest of the paladins would get back to the Castle and find its systems locked down and him gone, and someone would come. They had to.  He needed them to. He’d trained for this, but he hadn’t trained for more, for longer, or for whatever came next.  He didn’t know how to keep himself in one piece.  He only knew he’d never betray them.  Him.  Her.

Everything was starting to blend together.  Alteans.  Paladins.  Fathers.  Children.  Mothers.  Allura’s mother was dead, too.  He’d always liked her.  She’d always liked him.  Allura’s mother would never have let him put her in danger, but lucky for her, Allura was safe.  She was with the Blue Lion.  With the other paladins.  Not here.  He’d never thought of the Lions as safe, but now she wasn’t here.  She _wasn’t here_.

He was dizzy.  The lights would be too bright if he opened his eyes.  He had to stay upright.  He had to keep himself in working order.  He had to be able to fight.  He needed shoulders for that.

There was a roar outside, and a shiver ran down his spine in spite of the heat.  Which lion was it?  Probably Black.  Keith would want to be moving.  He hoped Gyrgan was here, so he’d have someone to carry him.  Lance and Number 5 were sweet and might have wanted to come, but they couldn’t carry him.  Blaytz could probably carry him.

He kept breathing, pulling himself up again with his arms.  It wouldn’t be long now.  He just had to keep his shoulders from dislocating for long enough to be let down.  That was all.

There were blasters going off now.  Galra blasters, and if the sweat in his ears wasn’t warping the sound, at least two bayards.  And enough shouting from the Galra that they  _couldn’t_ be fighting just two.  He opened his eyes, squinting against the light as he focused on the door.

Coran’s arms shook so hard he could hear the chains rattling, but they hadn’t given out yet.  He kept breathing.  That was Hunk in the hallway.  And Trigel.  Alfor was coming.

The door flew off its hinges, and he almost flinched at the crash as it landed a foot away from him.

“Coran!”

Allura’s pink armor coming through the door was enough of a shock that Coran’s fingers slipped, the cuffs cutting into his wrists as the full weight of his body pulled at them, but she was halfway across the room already. Her whip disappeared as she folded her bayard and tucked it away where it belonged.

Then she was holding him up, getting the pressure off his legs and arms.  He’d never realized she was so strong, but then, he’d never seen her so worried, either.  It should have been good getting the pressure off his limbs, and it was, but it also wasn’t.  Everything still hurt, and now he was dizzier than ever, head reeling.

“Lance!” Allura snapped.

Lance dodged a laser as he came in through the door, biting off a curse as soon as he realized what was going on.  “I’m on it!” he said, taking careful aim at the chain over Coran’s head.  Coran would have tried to hold still, if he'd had that much control over himself.  Lance shot, and Coran slumped into Allura’s arms, unable to keep himself upright any longer.

Allura gave too much of his weight back to him too soon, and his legs gave out.  She looked surprised as he collapsed onto the floor.

Lance cursed again.  “I think more of them are coming!”

Allura seemed to be growing, but that was probably just his imagination.  He’d turned to look at Lance, and he was still dizzy.  But then she reached down and scooped him up completely into her arms, and for a moment he was breathless, and he wasn’t 100% sure it was from the pain.

“I’ve got him!” she said.

“Hunk and Keith are holding them off, but we have to go!” Lance answered.  “Come on! I’ll cover you!”

He wanted to protest, to tell them he couldn’t let Allura run into danger like that, to tell them he’d promised her father, but Allura was running, and his limbs didn’t work well enough to hold on, and he was too terrified to think of telling her to stop.  He tried to press himself into her chest, and she must have noticed, because her arms tightened around him.

“Quiznak!” she shouted.  At the end of the hall, Keith ran a sentry robot through and ran toward them.  He suddenly seemed very short.

“What?” he demanded.

“Put Coran’s arm around my neck,” she said, “He’s slipping!”

Keith’s eyes widened as he realized just how weak Coran was, and it made his stomach sink.  “I’m alright,” he said, but it came out as barely more than a whisper.

Keith’s hands were surprisingly gentle as he moved his arms for him.  That hurt, too, like everything else, but at least he was trying to be gentle.  And then he had enough of a grip on Allura to hang on, and he could almost pretend he wasn’t useless.  This wasn’t right.  Alfor was supposed to come for him.   _Alfor_.  He’d  _said_ so.  Allura wasn’t supposed to be in danger when the one who’d promised to come was  _Alfor_.

But no.  Alfor was dead.  Alfor was dead, and Allura was - “Princess,” he gasped.

“Not now, Coran!  We’re getting you out of here!”  She wasn’t angry.  She  _was_ angry.  She wasn’t angry at him.  She pulled him closer, even as she was yelling at him.

Yellow’s head was inside the ship.  That was weird.  There were Galra on the other side of Yellow’s head, but Hunk was holding them off.  He liked Hunk.  Hunk turned to look at them, and then he was babbling, and Coran couldn’t focus on the words.  Yellow’s head was inside the ship.  That wasn’t right.

The lion’s mouth opened, and Coran felt a momentary wave of fear he couldn’t explain, pulling himself closer to Allura as she ran in through the open mouth.  She shouted at the rest of the team to follow her, and he thought they did, but then she was laying him down on the floor of the lion, and he realized there was black creeping at the edges of his vision, and he just wasn't sure anymore.

The last thing he heard before he passed out was Pidge yelling over the comms to ask if they’d found him.

* * *

Coran came to clammy and in pain and back in Allura’s arms.  She was carrying him across the Yellow Lion’s hangar.  “Princess?”

“Coran, it’s alright,” she said, her voice gentler and softer now that they were in the Castle, “We’re home.  We’re home, and you’re going straight in a cryopod.”

Hunk opened the door in front of them, and Allura walked through it.

“Everything hurts,” he told her, still out of it.  It was true, but he was vaguely aware that he wouldn’t usually have said it.

“I know,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.  Your father promised.”

“Promised what?”

“He’d come for me.  If they wanted information from me.  I had to hold out, and he’d come, and I just had to know how to stay in one piece.”

“What?”

“In one piece.  Like I practiced.  So I could heal fast.  Can’t let anyone who comes for me come for your father.  Can’t let anyone hurt  _you_.”

“Coran, what are you talking about?  No one was trying to hurt me.”  She looked worried.

“I wouldn’t have let them,” he told her, “I wouldn’t have told them anything.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” she answered.  She still looked worried.  Why did she look worried?

“Now you know I can hold out.”

“Coran, I’m  _never_ going to let that happen again!”

“I  _can_.  It’s alright.  I  _can_.”  It wasn’t coming out right.  None of it was coming out right.

“I can swear now,” he said, trying again “ _I can swear._   And no one will doubt me.”

The other paladins had caught up to them, now, on the way to the medical bay.  They looked worried.

“I can swear,” he said again, louder, so they could hear.  “My oath.  I’m allowed, now.  I held out.”

“Coran, you already swore your oath,” Allura said gently.  “It’s done. Everything is done.  You don’t have to worry about a thing.  I promise.  I’ll take care of you.”

One of the paladins murmured something, and Allura was yelling again.  “What are you lot doing here gawping!  Hurry ahead of us and get a pod ready!”

They scattered, and that was right, because Allura was the princess, but he was supposed to stay by her.  He was always supposed to stand by her.  Maybe he  _had_ already sworn.

Allura’s face kept looking worried until she set him down on a table and started trying to ease his arms out of his sleeves, and the pain made him black out again.

* * *

The moment Coran stumbled out of the cryopod, Allura caught him, for what he quickly remembered was the third time in the same quintant.  He blushed.

“Coran!” she exclaimed, looking worried all the way up to the tips of her ears, “Coran, are you alright?”

“Tip top, Princess!” he answered, straightening up and taking as much of his weight off her as he could.  It was good not to hurt, but the weakness from being frozen and the weakness from being tortured were a little too much the same, and he felt like something was crawling along his spine.  He forced his smile bigger, to camouflage the feeling.

“We destroyed the ship that took you,” she said, keeping her face tensely, carefully still.  “And Pidge and Hunk are working on extra defensive measures for the Castle as we speak.  We won’t leave you alone like that again, not even when we have to leave to form Voltron. You’ll be protected.”

He stepped away from her, a wave of relief washing over him when his legs held.  “It’s ok, Allura,” he said, reaching out to put a hand beneath her chin, but then putting it back down again when he remembered that she wasn’t a child anymore.

He paused for a moment too long before he could find the words.  “I’d let them take me a thousand times before I let them touch you,” he said definitively, his hands down at his sides.

“Coran -”

“No, Princess, I mean it,” he said, straightening his spine. “You can promise to rescue me, if you want to.  Your father did.  You can save me and I’ll never complain about it.  But it’s my job to protect you, and to protect any secrets you tell me, and I’ll do it with my life, if I have to.” He raised his chin, just a hair.  “I swore as much to your father, and if you’ll have me for a Steward, now that you’re on your own, I’ll swear it to you, too.  We should have done it a long time ago.”

Allura set her face, like she was ramping up for an argument.  An argument he already knew he’d lose, before she even spoke a word.  “No,” she said.  “That’s in the past.  I looked back at the old records, while you were in cryosleep, because I wanted to know what you’d been rambling about, but I won’t have it like that again. It’s  _barbaric_.  I can trust you, without having you tortured for me.  I  _do_ trust you.  And my father did, too.  Even before you swore your oath.  I  _know_  he did, and I  _know_ if my grandfather hadn’t still been the king, he wouldn’t have called for that, either.”

Coran nodded.  “Alright, then,” he said, “No testing.”  Allura still looked stiff, and everything in him demanded that she be reassured.  “It’s probably for the best,” he added, allowing himself a smile. “They always  _did_ say that sort of thing said less about whether someone would actually keep your secrets in case of capture and more about whether they were committed in the moment.”

Allura stepped forward, laying a hand on his shoulder.  Her face lost the stiffness it always held when she thought she was going to have to fight something, and suddenly, she was smiling.  Something in his chest that had been tight relaxed.  “Coran, you slept for  _10,000 deca-phoebs_  so I’d have someone to look after me.  I can think of no one in the  _universe_  more committed.”

He laughed, “Well, I  _did_ promise your father I’d look after you.”

Allura suddenly dove forward, wrapping her arms around him, and Coran hugged her back, pulling her closer than he would have let himself, 10,000 deca-phoebs ago, when she was only his Princess and not whatever it was she’d been so busily growing up into since they woke up.

When he let go of the hug, Allura smiled at him.  “I’m glad you stayed, Coran.  I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He smiled back, “I, for one, am perfectly happy never to find out.  I’d never leave you on your own on purpose.”

When she pulled him in for another hug, he let her, and this time he didn’t let go, perfectly happy to hold on until she released the hug herself. “You really worried me, you know,” she finally whispered, right in his ear.

He didn’t know how to answer that, so he just hugged her a little tighter.  Then the words came to him.  “I’m sorry, Your Majesty.  I’ll try not to do it again.”

He didn’t know if she felt it when he called her by a queen’s title instead of a princess’s.  He didn’t know if it settled into her chest, like a solid thing, the way it felt to him.  But after they let go of the hug, both of them at once, she let him take her hand.  When he bowed over it and kissed her knuckles, she let him do that, too.  And if the light squeeze she gave his fingers in return was just a little too familiar, just a little too  _familial_ , that didn’t stop it from being just as good as an oath.


	3. Poison

Coran stood in his place behind Allura’s chair, keeping an eye on her and Hunk.

Hunk was turning into quite the diplomat, though he still couldn’t hold a candle to Allura.  He cleaned up well, now that they’d gotten him some formal clothes to wear, he always took their business seriously, and he was  _excellent_ with hors d’oeuvres.  It was the other 27% that was a problem sometimes.  Hunk’s grip on decorum, formalities, and chit-chat was fine if he liked someone, but if they made a bad first impression, he wasn’t so good.  He was at least better at all of those things than Keith was, and he made fewer snide comments than Pidge or Lance or, heaven forbid, Pidge and Lance sitting next to each other.

Coran was proud of how far they’d all come, but Hunk’s progress as a diplomat was particularly exciting, especially when it meant having such a successful delegation at a dinner like this one.

Coran’s stomach growled and he regretted not having remembered to eat before they left, especially since the food on Allura and Hunk’s plates smelled so good.  When they ate with delegations from the Blades, or with longer-term allies, Coran sat and ate with the rest of them, but it wouldn’t do for a formal dinner on a planet they hadn’t already allied with.  And besides that, you could learn a lot from how a people treated those they didn’t think had any power.  It was valuable information to have when they were considering new allies.

Hunk smuggled some food off his plate and into his napkin, but Coran didn’t think anyone else had noticed.  That could mean anything, really.  It might be terrible, and he was trying to seem like he’d eaten it.  It might be wonderful, and he was trying to take it home to replicate.  He might have heard Coran’s stomach growling and be planning to slip it to him the next time the group’s attention was down at the the other end of the table.  That  _was_ the other advantage to sending Hunk along with Allura.

Before he could figure out which it was, the dinner went suddenly, dramatically wrong.

The alien across from Allura, another guest from a nearby planet, grabbed at his stomach, crying out in surprise and pain.  Allura had barely had time to ask if he was alright before one of their host’s delegation started seizing and toppled out of his chair.  Both Allura and Hunk leapt to their feet, but Coran was close to them and could see that they didn’t look very good, either.  Allura’s posture was oddly stiff, and Hunk was going green, like he used to do when one of the lions drove too fast.  Their host had risen just as quickly, and when he collapsed, Coran realized that this must be some kind of attack.

Hunk stumbled away from the table, shoving past Coran.  He made it a few feet before he fell to his knees and vomited so hard he was doubled over.  Coran hated leaving him to throw up alone, but Allura still looked stiff, and she was going pale around the ears.

“Princess?” he asked.

“Everything is blurry,” she gritted through her teeth.  The other member of the delegation across from them was throwing up now, too, and with less control than Hunk.  Any other day, he would be trying to get Allura out of the way, but she was trembling now and he wasn’t sure he could or should move her.

Panicked servants and palace guards were streaming into the room now.  There was noise and chaos all around them, but Coran had exactly two priorities, and as long as Hunk seemed mostly in control of himself, Allura was the top one.

The shaking was getting worse, and Coran grabbed her arm to support her.  “Princess, you need to sit down.”

“Yes,” she gasped, “Yes, sitting.”

She collapsed hard into her chair, slumping as soon as she let go of the tension that had kept her upright.

No one seemed to know what was going on, but Coran could make a few guesses.  They’d been poisoned, but he couldn’t be sure what the poison was in or who had done the poisoning.  All three delegations were ill, so it must have been someone outside, a Galra sympathizer, or someone from this planet who didn’t approve of Voltron or the other planet in the system.

He pulled out his communicator, keeping one hand on Allura’s shoulder as he called the Castle.  “Paladins, paladins, come in!”

Hunk’s retching stopped behind him, which was a relief, but he was still worried about Allura.  The light that turned on on the comm, telling him one of the paladins was listening, was an even bigger relief than the sudden silence behind him.

“I need one of you to get down here, now!” he demanded, not waiting for the paladins to say hello, “The dinner’s been poisoned and we need to get Allura and Hunk to the medical bay immediately!”

Lance’s voice answered first, “Quiznak!  We’ll -”

“On my way!” Keith said, cutting in.  “Pidge, get the pods running!  Lance, you’re with me!”

“No,” Coran answered, “The pods are no good.  They don’t do poison.  Pidge needs to-”

Before he could finish his instructions, Allura slumped sideways, her shoulder pulling out of his hand as she tumbled to the floor.

Coran’s heart leapt into his chest, but Hunk was already moving, crawling across the floor toward her as fast as he could.

Allura was even paler, now, clutching at her chest.  “My heart!” she gasped.

Coran dropped to his knees just as Hunk made it to Allura and helped her sit up.

“You have to throw up!” he shouted.

“What?”

“It’s poison!  You have to-”

“I can’t - just make myself -”

Hunk cursed.  “I’m so sorry, Allura.”

“For what?”

Hunk moved faster than Coran had realized he could, shoving his fingers into Allura’s mouth and up against the back of her throat.  “I’m so sorry,” he said, “I’m so, so sorry.”

For a single, terrifying moment, Coran thought Allura might choke on Hunk’s fingers, but then she was throwing up all over his hand and Hunk was using his other hand to hold her hair away from her face, ignoring all the mess on his own clothes.

Coran reached out to steady her, even though he was shaking, himself, and took her hair from Hunk.

“It's alright,” Hunk said, “I know it sucks, but you have to get all the poison out.  You  _have to_.  But you’re doing so good.”

Coran couldn’t remember the last time Allura had thrown up.  Alteans could, but generally didn’t unless they were extremely ill.  They had been surprised to find that it was so much more common for humans, but he had to admit that there was something reassuring about Hunk’s calm now.  Watching Allura expel the contents of her stomach had Coran nervous and tense, but Hunk was just murmuring soft reassurances and rubbing her back with his clean hand in a way that looked like it was probably soothing.  "Good job.  That's it.  I'm so sorry, Allura."

The delegation from the other planet had also thrown up, and they were upright and weak and calling their own people, now, in the background, but their hosts were still in bad shape, and Coran wasn’t sure whether he should be trying to offer help or not.  He didn’t know when the medics had shown up, but they were fully focused on their own leader, who they were trying to get on a stretcher.  If they were gone by the time the lions got here, it would be a moot point.

Allura gasped, getting more control of her stomach.

“Don’t fight it,” Hunk ordered, “You can’t fight it just because you hate throwing up.  You’ve gotta get ALL of it out.”

Another spasm started Allura vomiting again, and a small, petty part of Coran decided not to offer help either way.  Their hosts were hardly being helpful to Allura right now.  Her color was better already, but watching her continue to vomit was deeply frightening, and they were doing  _nothing_.

Finally, Allura started retching drily, nothing coming up even as she heaved.  “There you go,” Hunk said, “There you go.  You got it.”

Allura coughed, but that was better.  Closer to normal.  She caught her breath again.  “I want to move,” she said, “I want-”

Whatever she wanted got lost in another fit of coughing, but she managed to get control of it and straighten up. Her eyes had watered from all the puking and all the coughing.  Either that, or she was crying, and he wasn’t sure which was better.  Allura never liked to cry in front of people, and would have hated it even more if she was thinking of this as a formal event and not the middle of a disaster zone.

Coran and Hunk helped Allura to her feet, but she was still shaking, even harder than before, and they nearly had to carry her.  Coran wasn’t surprised.  She was probably frightened, on top of everything else.  He knew  _he_  was.

“How are you doing, Hunk?” he asked, as soon as they’d gotten Allura away from the mess.

“I’ve got a  _vicious_  headache,” he answered, “And my stomach definitely still hurts.  But I’m alright.  She’s the one we have to-”

The Black Lion crashed through the ceiling, and any other day, they would have been annoyed with Keith for the extra destruction.  Right now, Coran couldn’t bring himself to care about their hosts’ property.  Lance and Red weren’t far behind Keith, flying down through the same new hole in the roof.

Keith charged out of the lion with his bayard out, but collapsed it when he realized that his teammates weren't in immediate danger.  Allura scrubbed a sleeve across her face, wiping away her tears before the other paladins could see.  Hunk reached out toward the table as well as he could without letting go of her, and grabbed for a spare napkin.  Then he wiped his hand on it instead of giving it to Allura, but that was alright.  She had the tears under control.

“Are you guys ok?” Keith asked as he reached them.

“They will be,” Coran answered, “As long as we can find whatever it was that got poisoned and identify the poison itself.”

“I know what it was,” Hunk said, pulling a napkin-wrapped bundle out of his pocket, “I grabbed it.  They’re these, I dunno, these  _things_ that have a weird sweet coating on them, and I thought it was kind of cool, so I thought I’d see if I could figure out what it was at home.  But these have to be how they poisoned us.  That’s why the reaction was so delayed.  A coating.  It must have taken a while to break down after we ate it, and whatever’s inside is the poison, and that’s why we all got sick so fast when we got to it.”

Coran nodded, “We’ll test that first.”

Lance ran up to them, grabbing at Hunk’s free forearm.  “Hey, man, you ok?”

“’Course!  Can’t poison me for long,” Hunk joked, “My stomach won’t stand for it.”

Lance laughed.  “I never thought I’d be  _glad_ about you and your stupid weak stomach.”

“What can I say?” Hunk said, “Anxiety disorders and motion sickness have me well trained in the art of vomit.”

Allura moaned.  “Don’t remind me!  I _hate_ throwing up.”

“Wait, Allura threw up too?”  Keith sounded surprised.

“If you don’t get me back to the Castle, I’ll throw up  _on you,_ ” she threatened with a snarl.  Coran knew it was an empty threat, but Keith didn’t.

“Yeah!” he said quickly, “Of course!  Come on, we’ll go.  Lance, can you grab some of the rest of the food, in case Hunk guessed wrong.”

“It’s not a guess,” Hunk said, “It’s a hypothesis.”

“Yeah, I’m on it!" Lance agreed, "You gonna take them?”

“Yeah, I think they’re stable enough.  Right?”

Coran nodded.  “We’ll be fine.”

“I’m doing much better,” Allura said, which would have been more persuasive if she weren’t still visibly shaking between Coran and Hunk.

“Come on,” Keith said, beckoning them toward Black.

* * *

Allura had never been much for sitting on the floor in the lions.  She preferred to stand behind the pilot’s seat and watch, learning what she could from whoever was piloting.  They all had more experience with the actual lions than she did, and it was good to take the chance to observe.  But right now, that was out of the question.

She was pretty sure she’d ruined both her dress and Hunk’s nice suit, but Hunk didn’t seem upset about it.  As soon as they were settled onto the floor in the lion, he’d grabbed her hand and held it, running his thumb gently over her knuckles.  She had to admit, it was sort of nice.

Coran was on her other side, pressing his thumb against the pulse point at her elbow and feeling her heartbeat.  Hunk said humans checked pulses at the wrist, which was an odd thing, but he’d let her feel his pulse to prove it, and that had been sort of nice, too.  It was steady and soothing.  She didn’t feel like her heart was going to race out of her chest, anymore, but she could tell from the wrinkle between Coran’s eyes that he didn’t like what he was feeling anyway.

Keith was tense at his controls, trying not to fly too fast when he knew both Allura and Hunk had thrown up.  Allura would have appreciated it, if it didn’t keep what had happened so thoroughly on her mind.

She shuddered, hard, at the thought of it.  She’d only thrown up one other time in her life, and she was pretty sure she’d been dying.  She’d certainly  _felt_ like she was dying, like her insides were trying to flip themselves inside out.

“Hey,” Hunk murmured, “Hey, it’s ok.”  He pulled his left hand out of hers and wrapped his whole arm around her shoulders instead, before offering her his right hand in its place.  She took it, leaning into his side with a deep sigh.

“If it helps, I hate throwing up, too," he commented, "I’m just, like, good at it.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, turning her face in toward his shoulder a little, so she didn’t have to meet his eyes.  She wasn’t afraid of anything, not even vomiting, and she didn’t want him thinking she was weak, but thinking about it made her feel the terror of the thing all over again, and she knew Coran was already worried about her heart rate.

“Sorry,” Hunk said, “Sorry, we can talk about something else.  I’ve got a headache, too.”

“I _am_ dizzy,” she said, “But everything stopped swimming in front of my eyes once I sat down.”

“Hmm, maybe you’d better stay sitting down, then.”  Hunk snorted.  “It’s like that old joke about the doctor,” he said.

“What old joke?” she asked.

“Oh man, it’s good,” he said.  His voice sounded a little tired, all of a sudden, like he couldn’t put his usual enthusiasm into it, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, hoping that would be reassuring.

“So this guy goes into the doctor, yeah?  And the doctor says ‘What brings you in today?’  And the guy lifts his arm up behind him and says ‘Doctor, it hurts when I do this,’ and the doctor says ‘Well, then don’t do that!’”

Coran snorted a laugh, but she wasn’t sure what was supposed to be funny about that.  She could tell Hunk had noticed, but it was too late to pretend to laugh.

“Well,” he said, still at least faking cheerfulness, “It’s funnier when you act it out.  It’s just, you expect the doctor to say something more useful.  I probably ruined the punch line before I told the joke anyway.”

“No, Hunk, it’s not you,” she said, hoping he wasn’t too hurt.  He was just trying to cheer her up, after all, “I’m sure it’s a very funny joke, but I’m just not feeling well.”  Her stomach still hurt, and she wasn’t used to being dizzy while she was already sitting down, and her throat was still on fire from throwing up.

Hunk squeezed his arm a little tighter around her.  “I know.  I’m sorry.  I should have gotten to you sooner.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Coran said from beside her, and she was relieved not to have to find the words to say it herself.  “You were great, Hunk.  You might have saved Allura’s life.”

This close to Hunk, it was easy to tell he was blushing.  Giving in to a sudden impulse she would have checked if she weren’t so tired and disoriented, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, making him blush a shade deeper.

When she settled back into his side, laying her head between his chest and his shoulder, she realized she could hear his heartbeat there.  It was a little faster than before, but settled down as they all got quiet and his blush faded.  Then it was steady.  Reliable.

She closed her eyes and listened to Hunk’s heart, letting it soothe and ground her.  They must be getting close to the Castle, even with Keith going as slow as he could stand to go.  Maybe if she could just focus on the heartbeat, she’d be steady enough to walk.  Maybe if she could just listen - if she could just listen -

* * *

“Coran,” Hunk whispered, half breathless, “I think she just fell asleep.”

“Her heartbeat’s steadier now,” Coran whispered back, “But she still needs an antidote.  You both do.”

They were pulling up to the Castle now, Keith steering them around to where Black’s hangar was.  Hunk was glad he didn’t have to pilot right now. He’d talked a good game, but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a headache this bad, and his mouth felt almost unbearably dry.  He wasn’t sure he could have kept telling Allura jokes for much longer, if she’d stayed awake.

He was trying not to think about how frightened she and Coran had looked.  He wasn’t used to either of them being afraid.  That was usually  _his_  thing.  But now Coran was his usual self, concerned, but in control, and that was comforting.  And Allura looked rough, but he thought she might be shaking less.  He hadn’t been this close to her before, really.  He and the other paladins hugged and stuff, but Allura had always kept herself at a little distance.  Even now that she was a paladin, too, she’d only hugged him once or twice, and then only briefly.

He’d always known she was beautiful, but he'd never realized how  _soft_ she was.  Even now, he couldn’t think of her as fragile, but something about her, as she dozed on his shoulder, just seemed really  _young_.  Like she maybe wasn’t so different from the rest of them.  But they were landing, now, and he couldn’t think like that.  Shouldn’t think like that.

It was a shame to wake her up.  She immediately looked confused, and even when Coran explained that they were home and she was going to be alright, she seemed disoriented.  “Alright,” she agreed, getting to her feet, but something still didn’t feel right.

Hunk hovered close to her.  His headache was getting more and more overwhelming, and he couldn’t think.  He was pretty sure he’d been able to think, before.  But now he just had to keep moving on instinct, and his instinct told him to take care of Allura.

She wobbled in the doorway, and he was right there to catch her.  It was better walking with their arms around each other.  It was better being together, and knowing they would both be alright because they were both still moving, and it was better when he could  _feel_ that they were both still moving.

He expected to be going to the medical bay, but Coran turned them the other direction when they got to the end of the hallway.  “Huh?” he asked, that single noise the best he could do, right now, with his throat so dry.

“The pods can’t fix poisoning,” Coran said, “You need an antidote, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t wait somewhere you can really rest.  We’re taking her to her room, and then I can take you to yours.”

He nodded.  That made sense.  The thought of crossing the Castle again without Allura didn’t feel right, but at least going to her room made sense.  They should do that.  He could do that.

“Lance got here before we did,” Keith said, “He’s helping Pidge, and they’re already working on identifying the poison and finding an antidote.”

Hunk nodded, but this time, it made the headache worse.  He decided not to do it again.  He hoped he remembered not to do it again.

By the time they reached Allura’s room, he was leaning on her almost as hard as she was leaning on him, and both Coran and Keith had needed to start helping, too.

Coran helped Allura into bed, but as soon as she was settled, her eyes locked onto Hunk’s face, studying him intently.  He could tell she was fighting through something as hard as he was fighting through the headache, but he could also tell when she’d made a decision.  She reached her hand out toward him, fingers clawing through open air because she couldn’t lean that far.  “Hunk, stay,” she said, “You shouldn’t try to walk that far.”

Coran made a humphfing noise, but Keith was already moving to help Hunk into the Princess’s bed.  It was bigger than theirs were, and softer, and there was plenty of room, so he wasn’t sure why Coran was looking so grumpy all of a sudden.

“Lance is gonna be so mad,” Keith said, and something in his tone said it was a joke, which told Hunk he must  _really_ be out of it.  Keith didn’t joke.  But then he remembered.  Keith was Galra now, so he did.  Galra Keith told jokes. The other Galra didn’t tell jokes.

Allura’s spare pillow was soft and welcoming, and it felt good to let Allura take his hand again once they got close enough.

He wasn’t sure if he thought someone had turned the lights out because he was falling asleep, or if he was falling asleep because someone had actually turned the lights off, but then he was slipping, and he couldn’t keep track of anything.

Pidge roused him long enough to drink something.  Something she said would help.  It was wet enough that he could make his throat work to ask for water, and then their friends were making Allura drink water, too, and he wasn’t sure if they’d been this close to each other when they’d fallen asleep, but he was exhausted, so he wasn’t sure he cared.  He felt her settling closer to him when Pidge said they could go back to sleep, and he slid an arm around her.

She made a soft, content noise, and he wondered if she was this tired, too.  He thought she must be.

He woke up when Coran poked a head in to check on them, and realized Allura was sleeping against his chest, using him as a pillow.  He blushed, but every muscle in his body felt exhausted still, heavy and weighty and spent, and he wasn’t sure he could move even if he wanted to.  And he wasn’t even sure he wanted to, which was new.

“Go back to sleep,” Coran said gruffly, and edge to his voice Hunk still couldn’t read through his headache, even though it had eased a little since he took Pidge’s antidote.

He closed his eyes, letting himself relax again, and as he drifted off to sleep, it occurred to him that he should probably figure out what he was going to say to Allura tomorrow.

He wasn’t sure it mattered, and even if it did, he was asleep again before he could make a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure this one feels done? But I also don't have time to write more of this right now, so have what I actually wrote for Whump Week.


End file.
